“It’s the end of the world as we know it / and I feel fine.” —REM, It’s the End of the World

Imagine a world that has been so inundated with radiation that its inhabitants can barely function. Where a once great civilization that reached unparalleled heights of achievement in science, art, literature, technology and health has become so unhealthy that its inhabitants now must focus all their energy on survival. Where trains, buses and airplanes can no longer be relied upon to function to predictable schedules because there are too few skilled operators left still healthy enough to work. When more than half the population becomes sick from exposure to microwaves and birth defects are the rule, not the exception. This scenario is not all that far-fetched.

That is the world we are allowing to be built around us, as wireless technologies proliferate like a computer virus gone wild. And like children being dazzled by shiny new toys, we are allowing this to happen without asking what the full costs to society will be. Let it be clear from the outset: I use technology. I have nothing against it, per se. But if at all possible, I prefer to be reassured as to the safety of a technology by facts and testing rather than marketing PR. If that makes me a Luddite, so be it. In fact, I am a great advocate of Biomimicry, the science of learning to engineer from nature technologies that—like natural ecosystems—create no waste or toxins. (http://www.biomimicry.net/http://www.biomimicryinstitute.org/)

Illustration by Judith Lagerman from 'Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation' by Devra Davis

Dr. Olle Johansson of the Department of Neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, who has been studying the effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) on biology, asks the question: “Is biology compatible with the ever-increasing loads of electromagnetic fields (EMF)? Are we immune to these signals, or are we actually playing with our planet’s future, putting life at stake? The answers appear to be: No, we are not designed for such EMF exposure loads. We are not immune. We are gambling with our future.” Dr. Johansson is predicting that up to 50 percent of the population will become electro-hypersensitive (EHS) within the next decade or so. (http://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=21984&a=54583&l=en)

As one paper posted by Europe’s wireless watchdog group Next-Up (www.next-up.org) explains, “…the human organism is entirely bio-electromagnetic, since all the exchanges between our cells function thanks to electromagnetism. We lose this condition when we die and the exchanges cease, and our electro-encephalogram goes flat.” Dr. Johansson has pointed out that—for the first time in human history—current irradiation levels in built-up areas are millions of times higher than natural background radiation. Humans have evolved over millennia to cope with a natural background radiation rate of about 8 Hertz. We are now bathing in a sea of radiation from cell phones, Wi-Fi and other wireless devices that are orders of magnitude higher—in the megahertz and gigahertz range. This amounts to nothing less than a mass human experiment without informed consent.

In fact, it has been known since the Cold War that microwaves can be deadly. Former British intelligence officer and scientist Barrie Trower last year toured many parts of the world on his own dime to raise awareness of the dangers of microwave irradiation. Noting that there has been a connection made by some scientists with cell phone broadcast towers and an absence of bees, Trower said proof of such effects from microwave irradiation was documented as long ago as 1932. By 1971, he notes, “the US Naval Medical Research Institute referenced 2,300 research articles listing in excess of 120 illnesses from low-level microwaves. This was reinforced by confirmation from the US Defence Intelligence Agency Documents from 1972–76.” (http://www.stayonthetruth.com/barrie-trower-bio.php)

Given that all life requires electromagnetic communication between cells in order to perform the vital tasks of purging toxins and regeneration of cells, the proliferation of wireless networks the world over has deeply worrisome implications. “Biologically, apart from some specialist organelles within the cytoplasm or the amount of genetic material etc., all animal and plant cells are very similar; in fact at the atomic and nuclear level, they are identical,” explains Trower. “Thus, if you are going to affect human cellular activity, you will inevitably affect other animal and plant cells from the same source.”

While scientists and agribusiness lobbyists pin the blame for Colony Collapse Disorder on chemicals, they overlook the obvious: while not all chemicals are used globally, wireless communications are. “The radiation from mobile phone masts and similar wireless devices can therefore disrupt bee navigation, both by the sun and by the earth’s magnetic field. This can reduce the number of foraging bees returning to the hive and result in Colony Collapse Disorder,” says Dr. Andrew Goldsworthy, retired lecturer in biology at Imperial College, London. Austrian researcher Ulrich Warnke, in his paper Birds, Bees and Mankind: Destroying Nature by Electrosmog, is introduced with the ominous statement: “…the powers that be in politics, the economy and science are in the process of destroying what nature has built up over millions of years.” As Warnke elaborates, about 85 percent of plant species on Earth are pollinated by bees, and the rest by other animals. An accelerating rate of these creatures’ extinction could hasten the day of our own extinction as a species.

As Dr. Goldsworthy, Dr. Henry Lai, Dr. Olle Johansson, Dr. David Carpenter, Dr. Martin Blank, Dr. Andrew Michrowski, Dr. Magda Havas and the pioneering work of the late Dr. Neil Cherry has made clear, bees aren’t the only ones to suffer both short- and long-term effects from microwave radiation. “Precise, quality, straightforward medical and scientific research since 1950s details radiofrequency and microwave effects—without influence of stocks, PR and lawyers,” says Dr. Andrew Michrowski. “Analysis of 1950–1974 mortality of 40,000 Korean War veterans shows that microwave exposure effect is cumulative; it affects all deaths, especially accidental and respiratory; doubling to tripling cancers of eye, brain and central nervous system, lymphatic and hematopoietic and digestive system. This means that even ‘weak’ and short exposures from wireless systems accumulate over the years and decades to engender serious diseases.” (italics mine) More recent research by the University of Washington’s Dr. Henry Lai has shown both single- and double-strand DNA breaks from even low-level microwave exposure. (Electromagnetic fields: High-level microwave technology concerns, Andrew Michrowski, Ph.D. The Planetary Association for Clean Energy, Inc.)

It’s bad enough exposing soldiers who sign on to a certain level of risk when they join the armed forces. But our children are another matter entirely. They look to us for protection and to be the ones who know what is safe for them. A child’s skull is thinner and absorbs up to twice as much radiation as an adult; and until age 18 a child’s immune system is still not fully developed. Allowing the multi-billion dollar telecommunications industry to play Russian roulette with the health of our offspring—our very future—is heinous beyond description. One is reminded of the mad scientist so unforgettably portrayed by Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove, willing to roll the dice for an entire planet. In my more paranoid moments I wonder if indeed the goal is to reduce Earth’s population by a third or more. Whether due to some nefarious plot by a star chamber consisting of the world’s wealthy elite or simply due to short-sighted greed may never be known.

Devra Davis – one of America’s leading cancer experts – lays it bare in her new book, Disconnect: The Truth About Cell Phone Radiation, What the Industry Has Done to Hide It, and How to Protect Your Family. “Contrary to the firmly held beliefs of many respected authorities, invisible radio frequency radiation can alter living cells and create the same types of damage that we know increase the risk of cancer and neurological disease. How we manage that uncertainty could avert a global public health catastrophe.”

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About seanarthurjoyce

I am a poet, journalist and author with a strong commitment to the environment and social justice. If anything, I have too many interests and too little time in a day to pursue them all. Film, poetry, literature, music, mythology, and history probably top the list.
My musical interests lie firmly in rock and blues with a smattering of folk and world music. I consider myself lucky to have lived during the great flowering of modern rock music during its Golden Age in the late 1960s/early '70s.
In poetry my major inspirations are Dylan Thomas, Rilke, Neruda and the early 20th century British/American poets: Auden, Eliot, Cummings. My preferred cinema includes the great French auteurs, Kirosawa, Orson Welles, and Film Noir.
My preferred social causes are too numerous to mention but include banning GMOs, eliminating poverty (ha-ha), and a sane approach to forest conservation and resource extraction. Wish me—wish us all—luck on that one!